The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-10-07
POVERTY IN THE MIDST OF WEALTH.


| There is no wealth to speak of in Venice
and the only present industry is the ex-
portation of hemp and the manufacture Of
mosaicS, in which the city has long eXcelled.
| There are a few rich people who call them
selves citizens of Venice, but never live
here, spending all their time at Rome or at
their country seats There is but little trace
of the descendants of the great nobility,
and there are probably not more than three
or four families who claim descent from any
one of the 120 Doges. You can buy or
rent their old big houses or palaces,
as the people delight in calling them,
at very cheap rates. Some of them
are now nothing more than the merest
tenement-houses. Mr.. George Peabody
Russell, nephew of the late George Peabody
! is said to be one of the Americans who has
a fancy for owning European palaces. Two
were pointed out to me here as late pur-
chaSeS of his and the price mentioned was
| $40 900, which would be far from paying
for the frescoes on the walls The paint
| ing and woodwork in some of these old
buildings is positively most exquisite. In
what is called the palace of the Doge, but
which was undoubtedly occupied only for
official and public purposes, and which was
| where the Senate met, and the Council of
Ten passed that judgment upon life and
property, from which there was no appeal,
| there is splendor and an art in the
wall and ceiling oruamentation which
could not possibly be reproduced, and the
value If which cannot be counted in money.
| do not know of any private residence in
the United States, even those of the latter
| day millionalres, which are constructed on
such an extensive scale as these stained
and dingy-looking edifces in which the
mobiles and merchants of Venice lived so
| long ago Fancy a private residence with
| hall 80 feet wide and $50 feet long, with
| almost innumerable suites of spacious and
/ lofty apartments on each side, with marble
StaircaseS extending to the top wide
| enough for twenty men to march abreast,
marble floors at every story, picture gal
| leries of immense size, frescoing of the
most gorgeous tints on the walls, finely
and ost artistically carved statues of wood
and stone looking down upon you at almost
! every turn, beautiful gardens with flowers,
| fountains and waterfalls incloSed within
the walls, and as private as any of the apart
ments, and one may get some idea of the
has beenn IN Venice. Venice has many
fine old churches, chief of course, among
which is st. Marks. Napoleon Bonaparte
had a fine eye for the beautiful, and when
he found in any city into which his victo-
| riOuS legionS marched a rare painting, d
| piece of statuary, a fine bronze, OF any
| thing choice and recherche, he coolly
appropriated it and sent it to Paris. After
his downfall many of these things were
restored to the places from whence they
were taken At Venice, as we'll as all over
Europe, you are frequently, when admiring
some rare production of the brush or chisel,
informed that it was ''stolen by Napoleon
Bonaparten in certain year, and restored
in another certain year. Napoleon is re-
garded in all the countries which he con
quered as a mere robber, but in what re
spect, except that of phenomenal success,
he differed from the other kingly freebooters
and brigands of Europe l have never been
able to see.